Amazing!

Congratulations are in order to the UConn Huskies basketball program. Both the men's and women's team wake up this morning as the 2014 NCAA Champions.

This feat, both men's and women's Champions from the same university, has occurred only once before. THat would be in 2004 when it was done by....the Huskies of UConn.

I'm baaaaack! (Sorta)

It’s been more than a month since I posted here. No excuses just not much drive to post upon the multitude of idiocies that have been going on in the world.

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The Tundra got its new brain. It took just a bit over an hour for the mechanic to install the (very expensive) computer. Everything seems to be going well.

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Dallas Seavey won the Iditarod by 2 minutes over Aliy Zerkle. The 2013 winner, Mitch Seavey, (Dallas’ dad) finished third more than three hours later.

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A plane disappeared somewhere in the Indian Ocean and the 24/7 cable news channels do nothing but speculate as to its fate. Day. After. Day. After. Day. (I’m glad I don’t bother to watch TV news unless it’s an occasional peek at what passes for local news here in the middle of nowhere.) 

Searching “Flight 370” (with the quotes) on the CNN website produces 754 results. A similar search on the MSNBC site yields 134 hits. And FOX News gives 149.

Speculation, and that’s all it really is and continues to be, as to what happened runs the gamut from mechanical failure to black holes. 

Meanwhile those same stations virtually ignore political corruption and gun smuggling occurring from coast to coast.

@Mayorof Charlotte resigns after public corruption, bribe charges

(He’s a Democrat, but you’d have a hard time finding that tidbit in this article.)

@Fewcan reconcile Leland Yee with the charges against him 

(He, too, is a Democrat and a California State Senator—who strongly pushed for strict gun control. You’d be hard pressed to find that in this article.)

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My sister hosted a family reunion party at her house in New Jersey. Descendants of my Mother and her sisters gathered from Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Cousins, their kids and grandkids along with various spouses got together. Those on the west coast and the south didn’t make it but we had a great time just the same. 

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Baseball season has started and I'll be following my Mets--at least until July fourth, longer if they start doing well. Unfortunately, my TV contract does not have MLB access and recently dropped the YES network. (I don't mind the latter unless the Mets are playing the Yanks.) I can watch the Pirates, Phillies and even the Cubs on a fairly regular schedule. 

I lost the nail on my frostbitten finger. A new one seems to be growing. It’s slightly deformed but we’ll have to see if it becomes more “normal” with time.

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The bears are back. We have had two visits: one from a mamma and her yearling cub and one by a two year old. As a result, the bird feeders have to come in at night.

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My knees were doing very well until about a month ago. Then I suddenly developed a sharp pain in the right knee just above the joint. It only happens when climbing or descending stairs but it’s enough to make me go to the orthopedist tomorrow.

 I started doing yard work in the form of felling a couple of trees along the edge of the yard, limbing them, cutting the larger into fire place lengths, and using the new chipper/shredder to clean up the smaller branches.And I slipped on some of the snow that was on the ground while I was cutting down the trees. Didn't think I hurt myself at the time, but ever since the pain has been getting worse.

I might have pushed too hard in the warm weather we’ve had in fits and spurts. I started doing lots of birding doing several walks on consecutive days.

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As far as birding goes, I did have a good time going to various spots in Tioga County, PA and even got up to the southern end of Seneca Lake (Watkins Glen) in New York. I took lots of photos and will be posting some of those in the days ahead. The birds that migrated south have begun returning and/or passing through on their way north so there’s plenty to see. I missed a few that have already gone by, like the Snow Geese (although I may have seen a flock or two wing overhead), but there are more showing up every day.

 The Goldfinches are getting more and more yellow, a sure sign of Spring(?) even if the peepers aren't sounding off and the Woodcock haven't returned to the mountain. (Some have been seen down in the valley, however.)

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Finally, March Madness has culminated in UConn vs. Kentucky for the National Championship as I type. On the women’s side it’s two undefeated teams (Connecticut (37-0) vs Notre Dame (35-0) squaring off in the title game Tuesday night.

It's going to be a long month and a half

utgers' men's basketball just dropped its fifth consecutive Big East game and sixth game in a row. What especially hurts is they lead this one by 16 points (29-13) in the first half and still lost to the Cincinnati Bearcats by a score of 71-59.

Worse still, Cincinnati had not won a Big East game in their last 9 attempts. The Bearcats went on a 21-4 scoring spurt to open the second half.

RU is now 9-9 and 0-5 in the Big East. Full details here.

RU falls to UConn, 66-56

The Rutgers Women’s basketball season came to a close last night with a loss to #1 seeded Connecticut in Greensboro, NC. The No. 2-seeded Scarlet Knights fell 66-56, but the game was much closer than that. The RU squad led by as much as 14 points in the first half but the Huskies battled back. When UConn’s Maya Moore hit a tie breaking 3-pointer with less than three minutes to go in the game, UConn was in the driver’s seat.

Having to make some jumpers while at the same time fouling to regain control of the ball (and hoping UConn would miss the foul shots), RU couldn’t get the ball to go in the hoop and UConn couldn’t keep it out. Rutgers rarely scored in those final minutes. The Huskies were a perfect 14-for-14 from the free throw stripe.

UConn now advances to the Final 4 to face off against Stanford, a team they beat way back in November at the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands. The score then was nearly identical to last night’s: 66-54.

Full story and stats here.

RU advances over GW, 53-42

I completely forgot that the Rutgers women were playing George Washington in Greensboro this afternoon. Shame on me! But it seems I’ll get to watch them play the number 1 seeded Connecticut Huskies on Tuesday.

Today, they out played the Colonials and came away with a 53-42 victory to advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Essence Carson led the Scarlet Knights with 25 points while Epiphanny Prince added 12 of her own.

While the Knights shot 51% for the game, they held the Colonials to just 32% and scoreless for the fiinal 3:20 of the game.

Full story and stats here.

RU 69, Iowa State 58

The Rutgers women’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fourth consecutive season Monday night in Des Moines, Iowa as Rutgers thumped the Iowa State Cyclones 69-58.

Kia Vaughn led the Scarlet Knights with a season high 23 points. Three other Rutgers players scored in double figures as well: Epiphanny Prince scored 17 points, Matee Ajavon added 16 points to go with seven assists, Essence Carson chipped in 10.
Heather Ezell was top scorer for Iowa State with 19 points, followed by Amanda Nisleit with 15.

The victory sends Rugters to North Carolina and the Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday, March 30 where they will face George Washington. The two teams played earlier in the year and RU came away with a 67-42 road victory.

The full story and stats are here.

Rutgers 85, Robert Morris 42

The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament started play this afternoon. The Rutgers’ Women’s Team, ranked 7th in the nation and the Number 2 Seed in the Greensboro Regional faced off against Robert Morris University in Des Moines, Iowa. The Scarlet Knights had little difficulty moving on to the next round of play as they played a stingy defense that held the RMU squad to just 21 points in the first half and continued to shut them down in the second half.

Robert Morris came into the game averaging 74 points per game on 45% shooting from the floor during the regular season. This afternoon they were held to a mere 42 points on 12 of 60 or 20% shooting. They managed an anemic 4 of 33 in the second half as they were forced play catch-up. Rutgers shot 34 of 62 or a smidge under 55%.

Kia Vaughn led the Scarlet Knights with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Epiphanny Prince added 21 points while Essence Carson scored 9 points. Matee Ajavon had 6 points and 10 assists.

Sade Logan had 11 points for Robert Morris while teammates Kendra Williams had 10 points and Psyche Butler had 9.

Next up for RU is Iowa State on Monday night.

(Full story and stats here .)

But the RU Gals are doing great!

The RU women are a completely different story. This afternoon they defeated Providence 62-43 on the road. The victory was the 799th in Coach Vivian Stringer’s career. One more and she will become only the third women’s basketball coach to register 800 wins. (Tennessee's Pat Summit and former Texas coach Jody Conradt are the others.)

(The full story and box score are here.)

Overall, the women are 22-4 and 11-1 in the Big East. They are currently ranked No. 4/5 in the Coaches and AP polls. They have three regular season games remaining before the start of the Big East Championships. First up is DePaul on Wednesday night at the RAC. Then it’s Syracuse, also at the RAC on Saturday afternoon. Then there’s a big one on the road against current AP No. 1 Connecticut on Monday, March 3rd. That’s when the Madness begins in earnest.

Hoo-boy! It's been a bad year

You may have noticed a decided lack in reporting on the Rutgers’ Men’s Basketball season. There’s a good reason for that: it’s been quite painful. At one point in the season, the Rutgers’ Men’s Basketball team was 8-5; then they started Big East play. In 2008, the Scarlet Knights have managed just 2 victories (Villanova and Pittsburgh) while dropping 13. Several of the losses were in close contests, but far too many were in blowouts like the one against Marquette this afternoon. Playing in Milwaukee, Rutgers shot over 50% from the floor in the first half and still trailed 35-29 at intermission. They managed just three (3) field goals in the entire second half. The final score: 78-48.

(The full story and box score are here.)

Youth and inexperience have plagued the Scarlet Knights all season. Luckily, they have just three games remaining i a season they would rather forget. Being at the bottom of the Big East they are not going to have any sort of extended season. Let’s hope that everyone on the squad learns something from this season.

I should have gone to bed early.

Rutgers loses to North Carolina 93-71


Rutgers’ inexperience cost them last night against the #1 Tar Heels. “North Carolina finished with 14 steals and Rutgers committed 20 turnovers, which the Tar Heels converted into 30 points.” The young guards made bad passes and the overall sloppy play (caused by the strong defense of UNC) made the ending of this game obvious late in the first half. There’s no way you’re going to be able to win a game when give up that many points on steals and turnovers.

Highlights for the Scarlet Knights included Freshman guard Corey Chandler scoring 23 points and adding a career-high eight rebounds, Junior guard Anthony Farmer scoring 17 points, tying his career-high, and Junior forward JR Inman adding 10.

Full story and stats can be read here and here.

UNC improved its record to 9-0 while the Scarlet Knights are now 7-4.
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Redskins 22, Giants 10

The Giants didn’t do too well either, losing to Washington 22-10 and Jeremy Shockey for the season with a broken leg.

“Manning had a horrible night, completing 18 of 52 for 184 yards in a game in which his receivers dropped at least eight passes.” Eli hasn’t got the sure-handed receivers his brother does and it was painful to watch him hit guys on the hands and in the chest only to see them drop the damn ball.

On a positive side, Brandon Jacobs did run for 130 yards on 25 carries.

The Giants can still clinch a playoff berth by beating Buffalo next week. Hopefully they’ll get it done then because the final game of the season is at home against the New England Patriots who will probably be looking to finish an undefeated season.

Full story and stats here.

Decisions, desicions....

I'm torn, my Scarlet Knights are facing off against the #1 North Carolina Tar Heels and are hanging tough (9-7 after 5 minutes) on ESPN and the Giants are playing the Redskins over on NBC.


RU is 7-3 for the season and UNC is 8-0.

The Giants can clinch a playoff berth with a win.

Decisions...

UPDATE: 47-26 at half time with UNC up. Giants and Redskins are 0-0. Sorry RU, bye-bye.

RU Men defeat Lafayette 90-79

I missed this earlier this week, but on Wednesday, the Rutgers Men’s Basketball team defeated Lafayette 90-79 at the RAC in Piscataway. Any tie your team shoots 19 of 21 (90.5%) from the free throw line, 30-65 from the field (46.2 %), and 11 of 25 (44%) from beyond the arc as the Scarlet Knights did Wednesday, you should win the game.

JR Inman had a career high 26 points and freshman Corey Chandler came off the bench to score 19 to lead the Knights. Starters Mike Coburn (15 points), Anthony Farmer (14) and Jaron Griffin (11) also scored in the double digits for Rutgers.

Lafayette also had five players in double digits lead by Andrew Brown with 17 points.

Rutgers improved its record to 6-2 including a perfect 6-0 at home. They travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to play the Cornhuskers on Sunday afternoon.
Lafayette falls to 5-3.

The full story and stats can be found here.

RU Downs Princeton, 54-50

Saturday, the Rutgers men’s basketball team faced off against the Princeton Tigers at the RAC in Piscataway. After falling behind in the first half 30-25, the scarlet Knights came storming back in the second half behind the play of Junior JR Inman to defeat the Tigers, 54-50. Inman scored RU’s first six points of the second half to knot the game at 31 and inspire the comeback victory. At the end of the game, Inman had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Teammate Jaron Griffen had 13 points and 5 rebounds while Hamady Ndiaye had 5 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

The Knights are now a perfect 5-0 at the RAC and 5-2 overall. Princeton falls to 2-5.

Full story and stats here.

RU Men's BB went 1-1 this week.

This week in Rutgers’ Men’s basketball was one of mixed results.

Tuesday they played Dartmouth at the RAC and came away with a 55-50 win. RU had to overcome a 9-point halftime deficit to do so, however. Juniors Jaron Griffin and Anthony Farmer led the Scarlet Knights with 11 and 10 points respectively.
The full story and stats can be found here.

Sunday afternoon, the Scarlet Knights traveled to Jersey City to play St. Peter's in the JC National Guard Armory. It was the first time a game had been played in the armory since St. Peter's played there in 1974. The Knights couldn’t find a way to slow the Peacocks’ Wesley Jenkins and Todd Sowell who scored 26 and 22 points, respectively, as they lead the Peacocks to a 65-58 victory. Freshman Corey Chandler lead Rutgers with 16 points, while JR Inman had 11 and Hamady Ndiaye had 10 for the Scarlet. Inman also had a pretty good day on the boards picking up 13 rebounds.

The full story and stats can be found here.

Rutgers is now 4-2 on the young season. Their next game will be against Princeton Saturday, December 1 at the RAC.

Rutgers Men’s BBall falls to Florida 88-63

Despite having four players score in double figures, the Scarlet Knights, led by JR Inman’s 17 point effort could not overcome the two time national champion Florida Gators who had five players in double figures.

The RU squad hung in there in the first 15 minutes of the game and the score was tied at 31 with 5:52 left in the opening half. That’s when the Gators went on a 17-2 run to close out the stanza and effectively put the game away.

Freshmen guards Mike Coburn and Corey Chandler as well as Junior guard Anthony Farmer each had 10 points for the Knights.

The Gator’s were led by Marreese Speights’ 18 points


In dropping this final game of the Blue Ribbon Challenge, Rutgers fell to 3-1. They will return to the friendly confines of the RAC to play Dartmouth on Tuesday night.

Florida improved its record to 4-0.

The full story and stats can be found here.

A good night for RU

The football team played at Army and despite not having Mike Teel for most of the game, they ran all over the Black Knights 41-6. Teel was pulled after an early interception returned by the Army defender some 65 yards for the only score Army got. They missed the extra point. Teel has been suffering from a sore thumb on his throwing hand; a problem that has plagued him for several games and may have contributed to RU’s two game losing streak against West Virginia and Connecticut.

But, when your throwing quarterback has a bad hand, your backup can run the ball quite well, you’ve got Ray Rice in the backfield, and you’re playing a team that is 109th in rushing defense, well, you run the ball—a lot. And that’s just what Rutgers did last night.

Rice ran the ball for a career high 243 yards on 34 carries and scored two TDs. This was the fifth time Rice has rushed for more than 200 yards in a game and his 22nd 100-yard game. Sophomore backup QB Jabu Lovelace ran the ball 23 times for 88 yards and 2 TDs and Mason Robinson ran 14 times for 82 yards. As a team, RU rushed for 404 yards. Teel was 1 for 4 for 14 yards and the interception and Lovelace 2-8 for 28 yards as the Scarlet Knights chose to run the ball on a cold, wet night. Rutgers controlled the ball for 41 minutes 56 seconds.

The victory makes Rutgers bowl eligible with a record of 6-4 with games against BIG EAST opponents Pittsburgh (H) and Louisville (A) remaining.

You can read the whole story and get the box score here.



Meanwhile, back at the RAC, the men’s basketball team made its regular season debut with a victory over Tennessee Tech by a score of 70-64.

The very young RU squad seemingly had the game under control during the first half but showed its inexperience in allowing Tech to get back in the game and even take a 5-point lead early in the second half. But, lead by Junior JR Inman (18 points) and Freshman Corey Chandler (16 points) and fifth year Senior Byran Joynes under the basket (11 rebounds) RU managed to get things back under control and emerge victorious.

Joynes missed all of last year due to injury and was making his first appearance on the court since the spring of ’06. He is the only senior on a squad that has 6 freshmen.

Junior Jaron Griffin had 11 points and 7 rebound for the Scarlet Knights.

The full story and stats here.

Tennessee Downs Rutgers, 56-49 for National Title

Offensive rebounds. The ones made over and over again by Tennessee and the ones Rutgers never seemed to make. That was the story of the game played for the Women’s NCAA Basketball Championship. Rebounds made and rebounds missed. Those rebounds, and 5’ 2” Shannon Bobbitt suddenly draining three-pointers from all points of the compass during one spurt in the second half, spelled the difference in the game. The Volunteers won their seventh Women’s Basketball Title by a score of 56-49, frustrating the Knights attempt for the school’s first undisputed national title in any sport.

The Scarlet Knights’ Kia Vaughn led all scorers with 20 points but no other Rutgers player scored in double figures. For the Vols, Candice Parker’s 17 led the way but she got help from Bobbitt’s 13 points, Sidney Spencer’s 11, and Alberta Augusta’s 10.

Rutgers actually had the higher shooting percentages from the floor (38.1% in the first half and 42.9% in the second compared to Tennessee’s 36.7% and 32.1%), but those second and third chances UT got from the offensive boards proved to be the killer.

The season started with a disappointing 2-4 record and ended with the Knights capturing the Big East Title and playing for the National Championship. Their final record of 27-9 is excellent. And the Lady Knights are to be congratulated for a fine season. Unfortunately, as in nearly all sports (college football on the top level seems to be the exception) only one team goes home a winner.

Game story and stats here.

Final comment:
Rutgers had 10 women suited to play, all of whom got on the floor. Five of them are freshmen, none are seniors. They’ll be back. Next year they will have experience if not added height.

RU Rah, Rah! Hoo Rah! Hoo Rah! Rutgers Rah!

The Rutgers’ women’s basketball team moves on to the National Championship game by defeating LSU 59-35 in a semi-final contest in Cleveland this evening.
Despite getting zero points from Kia Vaughn in the first half (the first time this season that has happened), Rutgers jumped out to a 37-19 half time lead on the strength of their three-point shooting.

The Scarlet Knights converted on 8-of-10 three-pointers in the first half, tying a season high for three-pointers made in a half this season (they hit eight three pointers in the first half on Dec. 7 at DePaul).

Juniors Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson combined for 31 points and the defense did the rest.

Tuesday night they play for the National Championship against the winner of the North Carolina-Tennessee contest.

Story and stats here.

UPDATE: It'll be Tennessee after a come from behind victory over North Carolina 56-50

Wahoo!

The Rutgers’ women’s basketball team has advanced to the NCAA Final Four.

Monday night they defeated the Arizona State University Sun Devils in the Greensboro Regional finals by a score of 64-45. Four Scarlet Knights scored in double figures: Matee Ajavon had 20 points, Kia Vaughn had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Essence Carson added 11 and Epiphanny Prince had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Not bad for a team of only 10 girls and NO seniors.

The Lady Knights make their second appearance in the Final Four, the last being in 2000. The will take on LSU in Cleveland next Sunday at 7:00 PM.

Get the full story here.

SWEET!

The No. 4 seed Rutgers’ Lady Knights upset No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils in the East Regionals at Greensboro, NC, this afternoon by a score of 53-52. Epiphanny Prince’s go ahead layup with 20 seconds remaining and two missed free throws by Duke star Lindsey Harding in the final seconds sent the 32-2 Blue Devils home.

The 25-8 Scarlet Knights had lost to Duke 85-45 three months ago. That loss was the most lopsided defeat in coach C. Vivian Stringer's 11 seasons with the Scarlet Knights.

On to the Elite Eight!

Monday night vs. Arizona State

Get the full story here.